Old-Fashioned Online Retailers
Outsell E-Commerce Start-Ups

T HE COMPANIES selling the most merchandise over the Internet in Asia aren't the jazzy new concerns set up just to do e-commerce: They're the old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar retailers.

These companies grabbed three-quarters of Asian e-commerce last year, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group published here for the first time. At $2.8 billion in sales, Asia is a puny market by U.S. standards. But like the rest of the globe, it is growing rapidly. This year, Asian consumers will spend $7 billion online, or more...